Serena sputtered. “I am not.”
But she was, and Hope could see plainly that she didn’t like to be called on it. Well, too bad. Hope hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d liked a man who hadn’t liked her back, so she’d left him alone. She wasn’t going to take crap off this woman. “Yes, you are, and I think that makes you the pathetic one. Now, I have work to do.”
Serena’s lovely face hardened, losing the pseudo sympathy of before. “I’m dating him now. I’m warning you to stay away from him.”
Hope sighed and actually felt a little bad for the brunette goddess. The fact that she called what she and James were doing dating meant she didn’t understand James at all. James Glen didn’t date. He hooked up, and he didn’t tend to do it for very long. Though usually he made it all very clear, from what Logan had told her. James was famous for the speech he gave before he slept with a woman.
She turned as quickly as she could, hoping not to get humiliated again. That was when she saw him.
A ghost from her past. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest because it couldn’t be him. Not him.
It was just a single glance. Golden hair and a lanky, lean build. Piercing gray eyes. Sensual lips. He stood just outside the Trading Post, leaning against the huge evergreen that dominated the street. He was dressed in loose clothes and an open-necked shirt that showed off the beginnings of a cut torso. He was heartbreakingly gorgeous and evil beyond compare.
Her heart froze. She blinked, and he was gone as though he’d never been there in the first place.
And he couldn’t have been. There was no way she’d seen what she thought she’d seen. No way he was here. It was a trick of her mind since that one phone call had sent her reeling back into the misery of ten years before. She could still hear it. A single sentence. “Hello, love.” And he’d hung up. And her world had turned upside down.
“I’m just warning you, Hope,” Serena said, her bratty voice sounding far away. Hope didn’t look back. She simply stared at the place where the ghost had stood, a little smile on his face as he’d watched her. After a moment, Hope heard the click-clack of Serena’s heels on the pavement as she walked off to meet her friends. Serena and her jealousy didn’t mean a damn thing now.
Only one thing mattered. Christian Grady.
He couldn’t have been standing in front of the Trading Post. Hope rushed down the street, but she saw nothing beyond the tourists and the women from the Rep Theater walking toward the diner. She hadn’t seen Christian, and she was sure of it.
Because she’d killed him. She’d killed him, and he wasn’t coming back.
Chapter Two
One week later
James hung up the phone with a frustrated sigh. According to Cam, Hope had ditched work this morning.
Hope was trying her damnedest to avoid him. That was what she was doing. She’d told Cam she had an emergency, but James had to wonder if Cam wasn’t covering for her.
He’d spent a whole week pursuing that girl, and she was proving to be one slippery customer. He’d gone so far as to ask her out, giving her his smoothest smile and a full dose of cowboy charm. She’d turned a nice shade of green and had practically run out of Trio, leaving her garden salad behind and her bill unpaid.
She owed him five dollars and fifty cents. And a whole lot of explanations. Logan was right. Something was wrong, but either no one knew or no one was talking. Hope sure as hell wasn’t talking. She’d started turning and walking the other way every time she saw him coming.
And she didn’t look at him anymore.
It was damn frustrating. Especially since he wasn’t even sure why he was pursuing her anymore. The need to fulfill his promise to Logan was still in there, but it was more than that. Almost immediately after he’d decided to take his pledge to Logan seriously, he’d started to think.
The reason he’d stayed away from Hope was because he couldn’t offer her anything past a couple of nights in bed. He couldn’t offer any woman much more than that. After his father had died, it was all he could do just to keep the ranch from going into bankruptcy. When he’d finally realized there was no way to do it on his own, he’d gone to Stef, who’d put him in touch with a rancher friend of his named Jack Barnes. Barnes had taught him how a small ranch could thrive during a recession and introduced him to Trev McNamara.
The Circle G was on solid ground, and he wasn’t alone. With the influx of cash Trev brought, he’d been able to hire some new hands. For the first time in five years, he just might be able to have a personal life. He wasn’t getting any younger. Maybe it was time to see about settling down.
He wanted Hope. But apparently he’d fucked that up.
James walked out onto the porch, needing to catch a breath. He thought better outside. The early afternoon sun bathed the yard in light. It was starting to warm up, but they were beginning the quick slide into winter. It was already chilly at night and in the early part of the morning. Soon his fields would be covered in snow, and he would have to hunker down and survive until spring.
It got damn cold in Colorado during the winter. A man needed someone who could warm him up.
James growled and slapped his hand on the railing. His cell trilled. Finally Stef had managed to pay someone enough money to fix whatever the hell the Farley Brothers had done to their cell tower. It had been months. He glanced down and grimaced. Serena. Maybe he could pay the Farley Brothers to do it again. Serena was proving to be a little more tenacious than expected. He’d pursued her because she had always flirted with him. It didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes. She was deeply interested in her work and had told him flat out she just wanted to have a good time in bed. Then she’d started calling him.
The cell continued to ring. He ignored it. He would have to go and talk to her. Let her down easy. He’d told her he didn’t want a relationship. He’d explained that he was only interested in sex, and she’d agreed. He would have to talk to her again, but now wasn’t the time. Now he had to find Hope and pin her down.
Pin her down. Spread her out. Penetrate her with his cock. Yeah, that might be just the way to get her to talk. After she’d come five or six times, she might be willing to start talking to him.
“I sincerely hope I’m not the one who has you in such a bad mood.” Bo O’Malley walked out of the main house. Bo was Trev’s partner. They shared a wife.
James had to check himself, letting go of his anger. There was still a part of him that resented Bo. The big, blond cowboy had an easy smile and a manner that would help him fit in nicely on the ranch and in Bliss, but James hadn’t gotten close to him. It wasn’t fair, and he would get over it.
“Is old Red still giving you hell?” Bo asked, gesturing toward the barn.
Red was a horse he was trying to break. Big and powerful, the gelding would make a perfect ranch horse if he wasn’t such a stubborn son of a bitch. Just yesterday, the horse had tossed James right into the dirt. His backside still ached. “He gives everyone hell.”
Bo grinned. “I’ve worked around horses all my life, and I won’t go near that one. That one is a mean son of a bitch. I bet he came out of his momma with an attitude problem. How did you end up with him?”
James rolled his eyes. “Because I’m a dumb-ass and a cheapskate. Now I’m going to have to either eat the money and buy another horse or even worse, admit to Max Harper that I can’t break Red to a saddle.”